When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Djinn

By James Walker

The only rule in Hell is, whatever the strongest person says goes. And since the strong rarely care whether you are mugged or robbed or swindled you have to protect yourself. And protecting your possessions is harder still.

Except for the Djinn. Demonlings laugh when they see a Djinn swindled; how could he be so foolish? Then, a few days later, they see the Djinn track down the swindler and pound the swindler into the ground. They steal a trinket from the Djinn; surely he won't notice? And get pounded, while in a 'secret' hiding place.

Demonlings are afraid of all demons; that's just common sense. No matter what band they belong to, the demon is stronger. But only Djinn cause such paranoia. You know when a Calabite or Shedite is angry; he's ripping you apart at the time. If it's been a few hours since you last saw an Impudite, Habbalah or Balseraph you can be fairly sure that your mind is intact. But with a Djinn you never know if you've been 'tagged'. You can't detect it; you can't wait for it to run out.

It's no accident that the two Djinn Superiors (Asmodeus & Beleth) both rely on fear; fear is the strength of a Djinn. A successful Djinn doesn't need his resonance; fear of it is sufficient. And this is good, for it is very limited, and the Djinn have to devote a lot of effort to hiding that fact.

How many demonlings know that a Djinn is limited in how many items he can attune to? Not many. When a Djinn is breaking [in] a new demonling, he's likely to perform (or get an acquaintance to perform) the Ethereal Song of Attraction* to link the demonling to one of his attuned possessions. When the demonling steals it the Djinn calmly hunts the demonling down and pounds him. The demonling will get the idea that the Djinn is attuned to anything that might be stolen, no matter how minor.

How many demonlings know that the Djinn resonance can backlash? Again, not many. There's no hurry, the Djinn will just wait until it fades naturally. Besides, waiting increases the paranoia level, which is always a good thing. For a 7 Force Djinn, backlash is more likely than successfully severing the link, so it takes an emergency for one to try.

How many demonlings know that a Djinn can't harm his attuned? You guessed it. For starters, the Djinn will normally time catching his attuned to the same time as the attunement wearing off. In an emergency, the Djinn will just hit the demonling and deal with the dissonance later.

So for a demonling, a Djinn is a scary figure; he always knows where everything is; because he always knows where you are, so he can guess what you're doing; he doesn't have any known weaknesses. He's one of Hell's Men In Black. That sort of power is tempting. And to become a Djinn, and discover that that power is based on misinformation - well, it's no wonder so many Djinn are surly.

* the Ethereal Song of Attraction is a good choice for a Djinn. For starters, he gains a bonus when using the Celestial version so learning another realm makes sense. Secondly it's effective for controlling his attuned - especially when his resonance has back-lashed. Thirdly for the reason described above. Given how many Djinn would learn the Song, Djinn only Variants would exist, such as these:

ATTRACTION (Restricted: Djinn)

These variants last for a number of hours equal to the CD multiplied by the CD of the last resonance roll the Djinn made on the target. They cannot be used on targets to whom he has never been attuned.

Corporeal: The Corporeal Variant allows the Djinn to extend the reach of his resonance. The Song is performed on an inanimate item; for the duration of the Song he may attempt to attune himself to anything touching the item as if he was touching the target, or automatically attune himself to the item itself.

Ethereal: The Ethereal Variant causes the target (to whom the Djinn must be currently attuned, either by his resonance or the Celestial version of this Song) to suffer the effects of a back-lashed Djinn resonance, including (for demons) suffering dissonance for harming the Djinn. Angels, plus beings who cannot gain dissonance, instead take a number of Mind Hits equal to the CD every time they harm the Djinn (these are healed if the target heals the damage done to the Djinn). Every time the target takes damage or dissonance, the duration of the Song is reduced by an hour. This Song may be resisted with a Will roll.

Celestial: The Celestial Variant is the same as the normal version excepting that it may be performed on anyone to whom the Djinn is attuned (and no one else); and that the Djinn may attune himself to anyone he is linked to by this Song automatically.